Euro PA spot prices up on Cepsa snag, OX rise

27 January 2006 17:23[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Technical problems at Cepsa’s phthalic anhydride plant in Algeciras, Spain, coupled with a rise in February feedstock orthoxylene prices, tightened the market and led to higher spot offers this week, PA sellers said on Friday.

Phthalic anhydride producers and traders in Northwest ?xml:namespace>Europe reported a flurry of enquiries in the last two days from Spanish buyers affected by a reported reduction at Cepsa’s 30,000 tonne/year PA unit. As a result, PA sellers said that they will target spot price increases of up to Euro50/tonne next week, or Euro1,000/tonne free delivered (FD) NWE, on the back of the increased demand and the Euro30/tonne increase in February OX contracts.

Market sources said that Cepsa’s unit has been reduced for the last two weeks due to technical problems and could remain cutback until early, or even mid, February. Cepsa could not be reached immediately for comment.

European OX contract prices for February were settled at Euro730/tonne FD Northwest Europe - up Euro30/tonne on January, sources at major consumers BASF and Lonza said on Thursday (26 January).